Are we creatures of habit? 'If only I could capture that moment in time...' This is a project 365 blog which aims to capture one moment, twice a day.

Sunday, 28 April 2013

Day 141: To work, to see the full moon

Day 141 (26 Apr) Another (unexpected) day at the office, inasmuch as I try to work at home on Fridays, but yet again, the campus called. It was a day of meetings from 10am to 3.30pm...really.

Briefcase, at 6.12am

It was a little earlier start than usual two because I was picking up and commuting with colleagues. So at 6.12am, I was actually checking my bag and getting ready to leave. Breakfast, plants watered, birds fed and done as I went out the door just after this. With the next round of bargaining about to commence at my university, today was a day of meeting with staff to discuss issues of concern. I'm not the first to suggest that there are particular difficulties in the sector in terms of job security, work intensification and future directions. The rich are richly rewarded, the poor soldier on. The community of scholars and scholarship is becoming ever-diluted as we are forced to compete for diminishing resources. It is not the sector I entered many years ago. Still, it was a useful day to talk with colleagues about the things that we can try and restore, we hope.

Moon rising, at 6.12pm

At the end of the staff meetings, I had a couple of meetings with students but in the meantime I was called by our media people to speak to SunCoast channel 7 which was interested in the latest ventures of Clive Palmer. Mr Palmer had announced his intention to run as a candidate in the forthcoming election. He has announced his party, the (rebirth, again) of the United Australia Party and in the space of the few hours of his interview on ABC on Thursday night he went from not wanting to be prime minister to intending to become PM.

And a little later

Now TV interviews are somewhat different from radio interviews anyway, and this wasn't my first TV interview by any means, but the first where the cameraman was the interviewer as well as filming, hold the mic, asking the questions. I'm not supposed to look at the camera in these situations but I had to marvel at his multiskilling.Reward at the end of the day was the moonrise at 6.12pm and the light it cast through the clouds a little while later once I returned home. Full moon today...explains a lot, really.

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Getting started

At 6.12am on 6 /12

What am I doing?

Twelvepastsix, or 6.12, is an experiment in observation. I've long been fascinated by patterns in numbers, patterns in life. The 'SevenUp' series is perhaps one of my favourite documentaries. I'm fascinated and inspired in equal parts by the history captured in this style. The project 365 which I have discovered through Twitter, allows me, I think, a way to capture my experiment, on a much smaller scale.

My thinking was originally centred on choosing a time each day, the same time, to observe and understand behaviours in a small way. I toyed with a few ideas but decided on 6.12am/pm, for reasons set out in the first post: 6 December 2012, naturally.

The project will double as a brief journal of each day's events as well, to capture the small detail in its larger context. At year's end, I will be interested to see, just to what extent our days can be as habitual or as extraordinary as we recall.

The 'rule' is reasonably simple: I take a photo of whatever I am doing at 6.12, only the timezone may change depending on circumstances (where photography might be discouraged, forbidden or banned, for example). Most days should have two photos; most days should exist, notwithstanding crossings of the international dateline.

Finally, while this blog is inspired by community of presenters, producers, listeners and tweepsters of Brisbane radio station 612ABC, it is not endorsed by, or in any other way, affiliated with them.

About Me

I am an international relations academic specialising in Japan-Australia relations, Japanese and Australian politics and society and related areas. In April 2016, I relocated to Tokyo where I teach Japanese politics and Peace Studies in Japanese to Japanese students. I intend to write about these topics as well as serious distractions such as music, cricket, rugby league, books, photography and philosophy.